Pilibhit: With wheat procurement to commence from April 1, farmers are up in arms against the modifications introduced in the process of registration for wheat procurement for the current season.
Farmers alleged that the changes are complicated and time-consuming. These will adversely affect small and marginal farmers and are contrary to government’s claims of striving to remove middlemen from the procurement chain.
Till last year, farmers were required to provide their mobile phone numbers to be fed to the e-procurement system. Under the new system, farmers will now be sent an OTP (one time password) on their mobile phones by the e-procurement system in order to allow further functions of their registration with the government.
“The OTP has been made mandatory to ensure that the farmers feed their own mobile number to the system. This will ensure their availability for communication if and when needed.” said Avinash Jha, district food and marketing officer.
Earlier.all procurement agencies, except the food department. were using RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) method of banking to transfer the payment to farmers’ bank accounts. Now, government has now made ‘public financial management system’ (PFMS) mandatory for all agencies making payments to farmers.
Under, PFMS, after procuring paddy from a farmer, the concerned transaction is uploaded online by the procurement centre in-charge with his digital signature. Following this, the particulars of the farmer given in his bank account, the land ownership revenue documents and his registration with government website for paddy sale are verified by the district food and marketing officer and the regional accounts officer. Finally, the details are uploaded by the latter on PFMS for payment. This is a cumbersome process, say farmers.
“The application of PFMS led to long delays in payment to farmers in the last paddy procurement season. Now, with all procurement agencies are being subject to follow this system, it will only add to farmers’ woes,” said VM Singh, national convener of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee
Lastly, an SDM will be will have to verifiy land brought under land consolidation(chakbandi) system. But the revenue documents of these lands are not available online. A farmer who has exchanged land under “chakbandi” process can get himself registered for wheat procurement only after obtaining a verification certificate.
A farmer of Khandepur village, Manjit Singh, who is also the state secretary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), said marginal and small farmers will be denied access to the procurement system as the new policy is complicated and time-consuming. Therefore, they will turn to middlemen to sell their produce.
Farmers alleged that the changes are complicated and time-consuming. These will adversely affect small and marginal farmers and are contrary to government’s claims of striving to remove middlemen from the procurement chain.
Till last year, farmers were required to provide their mobile phone numbers to be fed to the e-procurement system. Under the new system, farmers will now be sent an OTP (one time password) on their mobile phones by the e-procurement system in order to allow further functions of their registration with the government.
“The OTP has been made mandatory to ensure that the farmers feed their own mobile number to the system. This will ensure their availability for communication if and when needed.” said Avinash Jha, district food and marketing officer.
Earlier.all procurement agencies, except the food department. were using RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) method of banking to transfer the payment to farmers’ bank accounts. Now, government has now made ‘public financial management system’ (PFMS) mandatory for all agencies making payments to farmers.
Under, PFMS, after procuring paddy from a farmer, the concerned transaction is uploaded online by the procurement centre in-charge with his digital signature. Following this, the particulars of the farmer given in his bank account, the land ownership revenue documents and his registration with government website for paddy sale are verified by the district food and marketing officer and the regional accounts officer. Finally, the details are uploaded by the latter on PFMS for payment. This is a cumbersome process, say farmers.
“The application of PFMS led to long delays in payment to farmers in the last paddy procurement season. Now, with all procurement agencies are being subject to follow this system, it will only add to farmers’ woes,” said VM Singh, national convener of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee
Lastly, an SDM will be will have to verifiy land brought under land consolidation(chakbandi) system. But the revenue documents of these lands are not available online. A farmer who has exchanged land under “chakbandi” process can get himself registered for wheat procurement only after obtaining a verification certificate.
A farmer of Khandepur village, Manjit Singh, who is also the state secretary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), said marginal and small farmers will be denied access to the procurement system as the new policy is complicated and time-consuming. Therefore, they will turn to middlemen to sell their produce.
